Leeds Chiefs out to mark historic night with winning home start

After four-and-a-half months effectively spent playing their debut NIHL National season on the road, using seven other venues as their ‘home’ rink, the Chiefs finally get to step out onto authentic home ice in front of a 600-plus home crowd.

It is an historic moment and one everyone associated with the club will understandably savour.

Tonight’s Yorkshire derby will be the first of 12 regular season home games scheduled for the new rink, but Zajac is looking to make sure that can be extended.

To do that the Chiefs have to make the playoffs where a group format will bring them six further games, three of which will be at home.

To make the playoffs, the Chiefs have to start winning games and overturn the 10-point deficit that separates them from Raiders IHC – the team currently sitting in the eighth and final playoff spot.

To bridge that significant gap with 17 games remaining they have to put together a winning streak that has so far eluded them this season – starting tonight.

Given the occasion after all the adversity Zajac and his players have had to deal with this season, the 30-year-old first-season coach, says his pre-match team talk won’t be a tough one to make.

“I was speaking to a couple of the guys yesterday saying that I can’t imagine that there will come another time, certainly in my playing career, and I’d assume a lot of other guys too, where you’re going to be among the first guys to step out on the ice for a brand new team, in a brand new venue in a city that has never housed ice hockey before,” beamed Zajac.

“The guys are rightly going to savour that and all we’ve said is be in the moment, make sure you enjoy it all – but the most important thing for us still is the two points.

“I don’t think it is going to be a tough team talk before the game because it goes without saying that the guys are going to be extra fired up for this one.

“It is all they have kind of spoken about over the past few weeks and everyone knows that it has been a long time coming and this is what we’ve all been building towards. It is obviously going to be very special when we step out on that ice.”

Zajac admits there have been some low moments during his first season as a coach, both on and off the ice but, as his team enters the home straight and looks like it has discovered some overdue consistent form, he is simply focused on what lies ahead.

“At times it felt, not that it might never happen, but that it was just tough to imagine at times when this moment would come,” he explained.

“There were times in November and over Christmas when we went through a bad stretch in terms of results and we lost a few guys where you wondered whether we were ever going to come out the other side of this.

“So to finally get here to this point and see all the work that has gone on to get the rink open and get us in there, it is obviously very exciting.”

And while there will understandably be a lot of focus on the historic aspect of tonight’s game, Zajac is determined to make it a winning start on home ice, with a fervent desire among his players to even the score against a Steeldogs team who hammered them 9-2 at Ice Sheffield on New Year’s Eve and lead 4-2 in the eight-game head-to-head series between the two.

“When we all look back at this and tell our grandkids about it, you want to say that you won this game, not that you played the first-ever game and lost, it makes it that little bit extra special if you do win it,” said Zajac.

“To square the series against Sheffield would be a massive boost for us, the New Year’s Eve game was a humbling one for us, but we’re a different animal this time around.

“The bigger picture for us has to be the playoffs and after the last few games we’ve kind of created that bit of hope now. Obviously it is still a big ask, but it is far from done and dusted.

“There’s a chance of playing three more home games in the playoffs and that has to be an extra motivating factor. I’ve not played on many teams that haven’t made the playoffs and it sucks – it isn’t a nice place to be.

“The summer is long enough without hockey, so to add an extra week or two to that is the last thing you want.”